The new school year for 2,300 students of the High School Centre in Doboj started yesterday. The Centre was heavily damaged in the devastating floods in May this year, and rehabilitated through the EU Floods Recovery Programme. The total EU investment for the Centre comprises 2.3 million BAM.
“On my and my colleagues’ and students’ behalf, I would like to thank the European Union representatives for the financial assistance, which definitely exceeded our expectations,” says Spasoje Vasiljević, President of the Board of Directors, emphasising that the rehabilitation of the Centre will allow for better quality of schooling.
The students were welcomed this morning into a school with completely refurbished cabinets, new furniture and teaching materials. The heating system has been restored, all interior water and electrical installations replaced and the walls refurbished. The Centre also got a new roof and a new facade. The only task remaining is finalising the flooring works of the ground floor, which is dependent on weather conditions and requires the prevailing moisture levels to decrease.
The High School Centre Doboj houses four schools – the school of hospitality administration, the school of economics, the school of electric engineering, and the school of technical sciences. The Centre represents the largest facility rehabilitated through the EU Floods Recovery Programme. Following the opening of the kindergarten “Majke Jugović”, the High School Centre is the second education institution in Doboj which has been able to resume work in the past week thanks to EU assistance.
“This is great news to begin the week with, and the best illustration of the EU Floods Recovery Programme in action. The Programme aims at restoring critical public services, and education is the first priority on the list. I wish the students and teachers of the High School Centre Doboj best of luck in the new school year,“ said Ambassador Peter Sorensen, Head of the EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative.
EU Floods Recovery Programme was launched to restore normal living conditions in local communities and ensure that the aid reaches the most vulnerable ones in the aftermath of floods in May. Funds will be used to restore public services and infrastructure, reconstruct housing units for the most vulnerable ones, and for social and economic recovery of local communities. The value of the overall programme was 43.52 million, of which 42.24 million were provided by the European Union. The programme is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
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